Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher on Thursday, gaining 1.39% to end at 11,774.59 on theeased tension over the nuclear crisis in Japan. S&P 500 index also ended firmer at 1,273.72, up16.84 points or 1.34%. Tech stocks remained vulnerable, as its gains were capped at 0.73% or19.23 points sending Nasdaq Composite index to end at 2,636.05.From the Middle East, the UN Security Council has agreed to impose no-fly-zone on Libya, sending theoil prices back above $100 a barrel. US light crude finished at $103 a barrel on Thursday, up5.79% from Wednesday

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s settlement. Brent crude also soared 4.45% to end at $115.13 a barrel.Gold jumped 1.42% to return above $1,400/oz. as the precious metal ended Thursday at$1,407.35/oz.US economic indicators also lend a strong footing to the US stocks as jobless claims fell in the recentweek and that the Philly Fed index beat the market

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s consensus. Jobless claims maintained its levelbelow 400K at 385K, better than the expected 389K and lower than the 401K recorded a weekearlier. Philly Fed index was at 43.4% in March, dumbfounding the market

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s consensus that the indexwas falling to 30.9%. The jump from 35.9% to 43.4% helped boost the investors

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sentimentsomewhat. Other notable releases were industrial production which fell 0.1% in February, the samepace as in January despite the market saw an increase of 0.7% earlier. CPI inched faster to 0.5%from 0.4% in February, as expected. The core measure which excludes food and energy componentsshowed a rise of 0.2%, the same pace as in January but slightly above what the market initiallyexpected.

CorporateNews

Goldman Sachs raised AA

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s Q1 EPS estimates from $0.25 to $0.28 on the back of higheraluminum prices. Aluminum price for Q2 has been raised to $1.12/lb from $1.06/lb. Q2 EPS wasunchanged. AA

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s FY11 EPS in turn, also rose to $1.03 from $1.00 while its 2012 EPS stays at$1.25 and 2013 EPS remains at $1.40. AA has been kept at NEUTRAL with PT at $17.Citigroup analyst said that JPM is

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Best Stock to Own

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while BAC is

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Inexpensive

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. BAC however, iscurrently under the investigation over Libor manipulation by the SEC and the Justice Department.CAT

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s analyst meeting will be held on March 23

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at 3:45 PM.DIS announced that its operations in Tokyo have been suspended following the quake last week inJapan.IBM has been kept at BUY by Canaccord Genuity with PT at $180.INTC bought Silicon Hive, a developer of programmable parallel processor technology. SiliconHive is based in Netherlands.KFT has increased its Maxwell coffee prices by 22% while instant coffee has been raised by 10%on the back of rising green coffee.PFE has recalled its painkiller Embeda due to stability issue.

March 18

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2011

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.DJI 11,774.59 (+161.29

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+1.39%) .SPX 1,273.72 (+16.84

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+1.34%) .IXIC 2,636.05 (+19.23

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+0.73%)

Stock Focus: Walt Disney, Co.

DIS

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s ascend has been interrupted by the Japan

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s quake. Since the recent peak at $44.34, the stockhas fallen by as much as 8.8%. Currently it

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s stuck below the 50-day EMA, the MACD is on the slide,and the RSI still shows no signs of divergences building up. Yet, despite its operations in Japan havebeen interrupted due to quake and nuclear crisis, DIS is expected to return to its peak once thepessimism dissipates. Building up LONGS could be started around $40.00 and down through $39.15,while aiming at a return to $43.40 and possibly higher.